The Next Stage of Street Law.

This weekend, the 5th (unofficially) bi-annual Street Law training Session took place in the HQ of the Law Society of Scotland’s headquarters in Edinburgh. It’s the first one in a year-and-a-half I haven’t been involved in, which saddens me a bit.

Street Law is now firmly implanted as part of LSoS’s Legal Education programme – which is fantastic news. Street Law is not ‘teaching law’ the way the LL.B or Diploma means it. The aim of Street Law is to make those most likely to come into contact with the law (who are, by the way, the demographic groups least likely to study law) more aware of the rules and their rights in those situations.

I will never forget my first Street Law lesson in Bellahouston Academy, which looked at Stop and Search, just as the controversy of Police Scotland’s abuse of Stop and Search powers was coming to light. I had never been stopped and searched – but the 13 year old boy in front of me had been and didn’t know what his rights were when he was. If the law is supposed to be ‘known’ and accessible, that includes the kids too.
My favourite lesson to do is the Human Rights lesson because it makes kids think about what they take for granted: privacy, freedom from torture, procedural fairness. Sometimes, they even make the connection with the news and the government and Prime Minster who keeps wanting to remove the rights. Some, some, even get angry about it. Street Law isn’t about trying to impose any particular view on the law, or any particular jurisprudencial outlook, but if that discussion comes about, then that can surely only be a good thing.

The LSoS’s purpose for Street Law is raising awareness of the law for those who are most affected by it. But success – and it must now be seen as a success – leads to more questions. Now that Street Law is established as an option by LSoS, what are the next steps? It is tempting, and I feel this may be lawyer instincts for formalisation kicking in, to say that the next stage of this should be the creation of a subject of “Law” at Higher or Advance Higher stage – but there are so many practical questions in there that require detailed answers before that is possible. Who teaches it? What does it include? How do you limit it? How do you not bore them to death with delict?
The most immediate question, in my mind, is “How do we increase uptake in the Street law programme? Street Law is provided by LSoS, but as an option. It is presented to councils and Head teachers as something they may want to take up (and it’s very ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ friendly) but some do and some don’t. Those that do offer universal praise – so how do we convince those who don’t take up the offer? And, while the offer is open to all, does it mean something that schools like Jordanhill (who the programme isn’t particularly aimed at) still jump at it?
Street Law is, at the moment, scarcely funded. The Law Society can’t do much more and are doing more than they can to support it (with Rob Marrs and Lyndsey Thompson going above and beyond to support the programme) and convince Head Teachers to take up the offer, but can more be done? Could more funding lead to more growth across the country?The programme now has sponsorship from large Law firms (including CM and Pincent Masons) – might this allow clearer resources and support to follow?
Even though just over 30 schools across Scotland have taken Street Law into their classrooms, how can this be expanded? Could it be that some teachers see it as separate and distracting from, and not part of, a Modern Studies syllabus? Could it be that teachers aren’t confident enough to trust Law students without teaching diplomas loose in their classrooms? Does the fact that it doesn’t free up a teacher (since Street Law should still be supervised by the class teacher) remove a potential benefit? These are all questions that, as the programme enters its 3rd year, LSoS can begin to form answers to and address.

Street Law’s success is a testament to the support it has received from LSoS, the officers organising it, the students leading it, the schools arranging it and the pupils receiving it. If the benefits of it can be clearly demonstrated, I am in no doubt that, over the next 3 years it will become a normal part of Secondary School Social Sciences and, as a consequence, school pupils will have an increased (and accurate) knowledge of the law as it affects them. Particularly those from lower-income backgrounds might come to see law as something accessible and maybe even achievable for them.